Up to provinces to provide residential rent relief during COVID-19 crisis, Trudeau says

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference to give an update from self isolation at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa to give an update on the government's response to COVID-19 outbreaks on Mar. 17, 2020. Andrew Meade/iPolitics

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday that the federal government will leave decisions on providing residential rent relief during the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to the provinces.

“If provinces, in whom the relationship between renters and landlords is their jurisdiction, want to move forward with more help for residential rent, they can of course do that,” Trudeau said at his daily press conference. “We will focus on giving the benefits to Canadians that will replace much of their pay checks so they can pay their essentials.”

The federal government announced last week that it would offer financial support to businesses to help with their rental bills during the pandemic through its new Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) program. Qualifying organizations can have up to 75 per cent of their rent costs covered. CECRA will be available for small businesses, nonprofits and charities.

The program will work by giving qualifying property owners loans of up to 50 per cent for rent payments they expected in April, May and June. Loans will be forgiven if the mortgaged owners of the property agree to reduce eligible tenants’ rent by at least 75 per cent for the three-month span under a rent-forgiveness agreement. Tenants would cover the remaining 25 per cent of rent. Tenants would also not be able to be evicted while the agreement is in place.

To be eligible, tenants must be paying less than $50,000 in rent per month and have to have temporarily ceased operations or have seen a 70-per-cent drop in pre-COVID-19 revenues.

CECRA is supposed to be up and running by mid-May, meaning that commercial property owners would have to retroactively lower rents for business tenants in April and May.

“These are meant to replace income that Canadians won’t have coming in over the course of this economic slowdown and that can be used for rent, for groceries, for a range of things,” said the prime minister.

Canadians who made $5,000 in income in the last 12 months or in 2019 are eligible for the $2,000-a-month CERB.

The CEWS opened for application from employers on Monday. It offers a subsidy of up to $847 per week per employee between March 15 and June 6. All private-sector employers whose revenues dipped by 15 per cent in March or 30 per cent in April and May will be eligible.

Canadians are not allowed to both receive CERB and be paid a wage subsidized through CEWS.

Some provinces have already offered residential rent-specific relief.

Renters in British Columbia can receive up to $300 if they have no dependents and $500 if they do have dependents.

In Prince Edward Island, eligible renters will receive $1,000 per household to cover three months’ worth of rent.

All of the provinces and territories with the exception of Nunavut have suspended evictions to some degree for those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.